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Originally Posted by stonetools
I am certain that Apple would not have gone into the ebook retail business absent agency pricing, so that's one.
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Ah yes--the one that's
being sued for price-fixing, because they couldn't enter the market without it.
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Google most likely would not have gone in, either, so that's another.
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Google had been planning to enter the ebook market for years.
So... you can name two powerhouse tech companies who decided to dabble in ebooks after agency pricing went into effect, and you're calling that "diversity?" Neither Apple nor Google needs to sell ebooks to remain profitable; they can both afford their ebook sales stores to run in the red for several years while they're sorting out what to do with them.
Where are the dozens of "mom-and-pop ebook" stores, the ones without a huge selection but instead a curated collection designed to appeal to a specific audience? There's an AllRomanceEbooks, which was hit hard by agency pricing... if agency pricing is *better* for bookstores, why haven't All-Mystery-Ebooks and All-SF-Ebooks sprung up in the last year?
If Amazon's semi-monopoly was threatening other businesses, publishers had options other than "collude to raise prices for customers and drive smaller stores out of business."